The Relapse
by smolTITAN118
Summary: A routine mission on Mercury brings back some bad experiences for L.J.


Jayla Rin and her fireteam transmatted to the surface of Mercury. Their mission was routine; checking the entrance to the Infinite Forest and checking in with Brother Vance, potentially even try and make contact with Osiris. As usual, they were met with several Vex, as the planet was almost completely overrun with them.

"Ahh, a welcoming party." Their hunter, L.J smiled. "Don't drink the Vex milk!" He threw a knife at one, and slid and shot-gunned the next.

Darren, their warlock, shook his head and drew his Eternity's Edge sword.

Jayla leaped ahead of him and threw a pulse grenade at the ground in front of her. The arc energy hit a couple more Vex, but it hit her as well, charging the arc conductors on her sub machine gun.

At the entrance to the Forest, there was a squad of Cabal, led by a Collossus.

"Take them out, guys." Jayla said.

She switched to her Thunderlord heavy machine gun, and unloaded it on the Collossus. Darren burned his super and took out the remaining escorts.

"High-value target, dead ahead." L.J called back to them, as the three met in front of the Forest's entrance.

A Mercury Conqueror centurion stepped from behind a pillar and blocked the entrance to the Infinite Forest.

"Not good." Darren whispered.

"Scatter!" Jayla yelled as the Conqueror hoisted a minigun.

"Who's got a super?" L.J shadestepped to the right side and threw a grenade.

"I did my part!" Darren said as he retreated down the steps and to the left.

Jayla rolled her eyes as she leaped to the left side behind cover. "Almost...!"

L.J reloaded his shotgun. "In the meantime, we'll take turns then."

Jayla hoisted her Thunderlord, and Darren drew his Eternity's Edge.

"Let's ride."

Jayla popped out of her cover and drew the Conqueror's fire, while Darren and L.J went up the steps and attacked from either side.

The Conqueror's shield went down, it reeled and staggered, and-

CRACK

It punched the ground, sending a shock wave thru the stone. The hunter and warlock went flying.

Darren fell off the edge of the stone steps and caught himself in a free-fall.

L.J, however, slammed skull-first, spine-second, into the wall. His body hit the ground and rolled down the steps like a rag doll. Dead on impact.

His ghost, Asa, appeared and started to revive him.

Jayla's super was up.

She leaped out of her cover and titan-smashed the Conqueror, and it disintegrated under the force of her Arc fists of havoc.

The Conqueror dropped some valuable resources and Glimmer. "Nice job, guys." Jayla said. "Come get your cut, L.J!"

There was a flash of light as L.J was returned to life, and then a howl like a wounded animal as he collapsed back to the ground.

"L.J?!" Jayla turned around. She knew he had a history of difficult rezzes, but as long as she had known him, he had seemed fine. To be fair, he made sure he didn't die very often.

"L.J...Guardian, you're alright...Liam!" Asa was trying to talk to him.

L.J was sitting on his hands and knees, blue eyes pinched closed. Every time he'd try to take a breath, he would start gagging and choking.

"No...no...i can't do this again!" He sobbed.

Jayla looked at Darren and they cautiously approached their hunter.

"L.J?" Jayla said quietly.

His breath was ragged like he had just run a marathon.

"L.J?" She said again.

"Lyssia?" He choked. He swallowed and looked up at her. His face was white, and his eyes were full-crazy; like blue saucers. They stared thru her tho; he didn't seem to actually SEE her.

"Lyssia?!"

Jayla cocked her head. He definitely didn't recognize her; he thought he was seeing the Exo warlock from his old fireteam.

_He's relapsed_. It dawned on her.

He choked especially violently and vomited.

"Liam…" Jayla settled on her knees on his left side and put her arms cautiously over his shoulders. Darren walked around and knelt on his right, placing his hand on his back.

"Liam...Lyssia's gone. A long time ago; you're not there anymore-"

"I...I know. I know." He sobbed brokenly after a minute.

"Do you know who i am?" She asked gently. "Do you know where you are?"

He scrunched his eyes closed again and didn't answer; just shook and cried a little bit more.

Jayla tried to remember how he described his previous struggles with rezzes, related to events from long before she met him.

"I know it hurts, L. But it's okay now. I think...i think you had some kind of relapse. What you're feeling was...a memory. That's all. You're okay with us; we're your fireteam."

Darren squeezed his shoulder.

L.J finally looked up, and opened his eyes. "The...the-" He nodded his head towards where the Cabal had been.

"He's gone; we got him." Jayla smiled reassuringly.

L.J nodded, and hung his head again, sitting back on his heels. Finally he looked up, first at Jayla and then at Darren.

"You're...my fireteam." He said it with more certainty this time. "You're alright?"

"Only if you are." Darren answered.

L.J took a breath. "Yeah. I'm good. Just startled, i guess. This hasn't affected me like that in a long time."

"Your cortisol and adrenal levels skyrocketed as soon as you registered as 'alive' again." Asa said, scanning him. "But they're returning to normal. Physically, you're alright; other than that, the revive was textbook. You should have all 10 fingers and all 10 toes."

L.J smiled shakily and shook out his hands. "So far so good; i'll check the rest later."

Jayla wrapped his arm over her shoulder and pulled him to his feet.

"Relapse, huh?" He said as he stood, shaking his feet one a time, like he was trying to bring feeling and life back to them. The color was starting to come back to his face.

Jayla looked up and nodded. "I think so. You okay?" She slowly let him go.

He nodded and patted her shoulder as they headed back towards the lighthouse. "Hmm."


End file.
